This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
Consequences of believing a lie. That's why the apostle Paul
every time we take the Lord's Supper, he says to examine
yourself, whether you're in the faith every time that supper
goes around, would the God, if any of us here are posers and
we're not Christians, that we would take that we would examine
ourselves and we'd hear the Spirit of God say you're still
lost, you're phony, you need to get saved.
And if you hear that, be thankful that he's shown you
that you are in delusion. It's not enough to speak
spiritually or to fill your head with knowledge of the Lord and
just His Word. Being a believer, true in faith
is something that we feel in our hearts.
It's the difference between merely performing outward
displays of what we think a Christian should look like and
walking in close, continual relationship with the Lord.
Today, Pastor Clark teaches us that true faith is what changes
us from the inside out, molding us and shaping us into the
people God intended us to be. Now here's Pastor Clark in
Revelation Chapter 19 with today's edition of Living Waters
of Grace. Revelation 19, Verse 11.
Now I saw heaven opened, and behold a White Horse.
And he who sat on him was called faithful and true, and in
righteousness he judges and makes war.
His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many
crowns. He had a name written that no
one knew except himself. He was clothed with a robe
dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.
And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and
clean, followed him on white horses.
Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he
should strike the nations, and he himself will roll them with
the rod of iron. He himself treads the winepress
of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, And he has on his
robe and on his sigh a name written King of kings and Lord
of Lords. Now if you look in Revelation
chapter 19 and you see in verse 8, and this is referring to the
marriage supper of the Lamb that we studied about several weeks
ago. And This Is Us who are in heaven
at this particular time, the wonderful time where he says I
so long to eat of this bread and drink this cup, but I won't do
it again until we're all together in heaven.
And so the celebration of the marriage supper of the Lamb is
the first time in history after Christ's ascension that he'll
partake of this supper with his bride.
What a glorious day that'll be. We're all going to have that
privilege to be there if we're believers and celebrate that
time. And not only will we have this
privilege of celebrating this wonderful, glorious supper, but
he says it'll be granted to us. It will be arrayed in fine
linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts
of the Saints. And so the Lord will cover us
with his glory, with his brightness, with his
righteousness. And we'll all be sitting around
white as snow, pure, no sin, no problems anymore, no difficulty
with struggles in this world because we'll be in His
presence. And the righteousness that we
have is this righteousness of Jesus Christ, because none of us
are righteous in and of ourselves, are we?
We can't stand before God and this act like we have it
together, because we don't. We only have it together because
of what Jesus has done for us. And so he allows us to wear
these robes of righteousness, these pure white robes and the
robes tied together in the fact that it says these righteous
acts of his Saints. Now everything we do in this
earth in the name of Jesus and by His Spirit is recorded in a
book. And when God opens those books
at the judgement seat of Christ for the body, for the believers,
for the church, he'll judge out of that book the things we did
in the body, whether they're good or evil.
And I would trust that you and myself, we want to have as much
possible written in that book that is good.
Amen. Not evil, because what is
goodwill come out as gold, silver, and precious stone.
What is evil will be burned and it'll be destroyed in the fire.
So keep in mind that we're saved by grace through faith in Christ
alone. But at the same time there is
this responsibility for us to do the things that He told us to
do. For it says in Ephesians 210 For
we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus.
Unto what good works which God hath before ordained, that we
should walk in them. And at that final day, the Lord
says, Well, why call you me Lord, Lord, and do not the
things which I say. So the Lord ties a very strong
emphasis on the fact that if we have true faith, it's going to
be seen by what we do right. It's going to be seen by how we
live, how we follow his word, how we listen to what he says.
Now when we look at 19, it says about the Lord Himself when he's
coming with us in 13, it says he's clothed with a robe dipped
in blood, and his name is called the word of God in 14.
And the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen.
That's the same group that we just looked at in verse 8.
That's us. The armies clothed in fine
linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses.
So we see the distinction here between, as I read earlier, the
rapture of the Church one event, and the second coming of Christ,
which occurs at the end of the tribulation.
Now I'm going to give you a couple parallels here so you can
keep in your mind the distinction between the rapture
and the second coming of Christ. First of all, as I said, the
rapture is the catching away of all believers, those who are
presently alive on the earth at the time of the trumpet sound,
and those who are in the graves, their bodies will be actually
literally resurrected out of the graves, and their spirits who
are with the Lord will meet together with the body.
And then the Lord will give us these new bodies which are going
to be glorious without corruption in the second coming.
There is no lifting up of believers from the face of the
earth to meet the Lord. We're coming back with the Lord,
right? It's a separate event #2 the
raptured Saints. We go to be with the Lord, the
second coming. We're coming back, as I said, to
the earth. Now in the rapture, the earth is
not judged yet, but in the second coming of Christ, the
earth will be judged. The rapture is imminent.
As I said earlier, any moment it could happen.
Today I was watching a video, pretty cool, this pastors
preaching about the rapture and people were sitting out there
with their Bibles and all this. And he said, and it could happen
right now. And all of a sudden, like
there's all these people disappear and then there's like
a few people sitting there looking around like what
happened? You know, what about me, you
know? And they realized they weren't
true believers. They saw on the ground and got
on their knees. Now the good news is even after
the rapture, people will still have an opportunity to get
saved. The Lord will still be saving
people, but they'll have to go through the tribulation.
The second coming of Christ follows definite predicted signs
that we see throughout the tribulation.
And 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 talks about the Day of the Lord,
which is a period of time from the beginning of the rapture,
when we're taken out to the end of time, through the Millennium,
through the tribulation, to the end of time when the Lord
creates the new heavens and the new earth.
So it's a completely different time segment.
The rapture effects believers only.
The second coming effects all people.
Those of us who come back with Christ to the earth and all
those who are in the earth will start to battle against the Lord
and His army. The rapture happens before the
tribulation, before God's wrath. The second coming concludes at
the end of the tribulation in regard to Satan.
When the rapture occurs, there's no reference to what happens to
Satan at the second coming of Christ.
We see that Christ binds Satan for 1000 years during the
millennial reign. The rapture Christ comes for his
own and the second coming. Christ is coming with his own
and the rapture. Christ comes in the air.
In the second coming He comes to the earth and the rapture Christ
claims His bride. In the second coming He comes to
the earth with his bride in the rapture.
Only his own will see him in the second coming.
The Bible says every eye shall see him in the rapture.
The tribulation begins right after we are taken out, and the
millennial Kingdom begins at the second coming.
There's enough information in the scriptures to make it clear
that the raptures are quite different event than the second
coming of Jesus Christ. And the reason I bring this up,
there's a lot of confusion regarding these things in the
body of Christ today. You have people who are pre
Trib, mid Trib, post Trib, all millennial, post millennial, all
these different end time views, eschatological end time views.
We Calvary Chapel are historic pre mill, pre Trib in the sense
of our eschatology and we're not alone.
Good Bible teachers that you listen to in a radio like John
MacArthur or Charles Lindahl, Charles Stanley, a lot of you
guys listen, I know to some of these people there, they take
the same position we do. So we're in good company with
credible Bible scholars. However, I said this isn't
anything to divide on with people who have different
positions. The good news is whenever the
Lord comes back to all realize we're right and they were wrong,
but if they're in Christ, we're all going to love each other
anyway and it's not going to matter.
But it is important in regard to how we're preparing for the
Lord's return and how we live in light of that return.
So let's look at the section that we're going to spend some
time on Revelation chapter 19. As we see in verse 11, the
heaven is open and behold a White Horse, a physical animal,
a horse. We're all going to be riding
horses when we come back with the Lord at the second coming.
Now I don't like riding horses. I'm afraid of getting on them
because they can go out of control, you know, and unless
you're are really trained to tell it what to do, it just has
a mind of its own. But the good news is when we
come back with the Lord, don't worry about that.
We're going to get on the horse. The horse is going to know
exactly where it's going, what it's supposed to do.
We're just going to have to hold on.
That's all we're going to have to do.
But Christ is going to come back on this beautiful White Horse
and we're all going to ride with him.
And it says he who sat on him was called faithful and true
capital F capital T in your Bibles and righteousness.
He judges and makes war. Now, this is a time that I think
every one of us should be looking forward to.
I was thinking about the world the way it is today and the
complete ignorance that it has toward the things of God, this
independence of a Creator. Sometimes you wish you had this
power in you, and we do. We have the Holy Spirit's power
in us, but we don't have the power to bring forth judgment,
do we? Only Christ has that power and
authority. Sometimes you just long for
certain people you know that will realize that God is the
Lord. Amen.
People that scoff and ridicule and laugh at you and reject you
and think you're nuts. You just can't wait for the day
that they realize how real God is and how holy is and how just
and how glorious he is. But this is the day that we have
to wait for when Christ comes and the liberal thought the day
is I'm not a Sinner. Why would he be talking about
sin? I'm a good person and how
there's no such place as hell. I would not even acknowledge
that a place like that exists, some might say.
Someone told me recently that a relative went to a neighbor and
was telling the neighbor boy about the importance of knowing
Jesus Christ and accepting Him as your Savior.
Because if you don't have him as your Savior and you're Lord,
you'll suffer the consequences one day of eternal hell.
And the mother came over very angry and very disturbed that
this young man had told her son about hell.
And she said, we don't believe in such a place.
That's morbid. We would never accept anything
like that. Well, her authority certainly
isn't the word of God, is it? And sometimes it's difficult for
us because if we are Christians, we have to proclaim everything
that this Bible teaches, even when it makes people disturbed
and when it makes them uncomfortable.
And that's the difference between churches in these last
days that are proclaiming the truth and churches that are
proclaiming the lie. But there is this liberal
thought today. There is no place in this world
today for any idea of judgment. There's no consequences for sin.
We make up God in our own image and and how we want to think
about him. That's what's called
universalism. This pretense and delusion today
that people have will one day be very, very costly.
If you look at Matthew Chapter 7 for a moment, the slip in your
Bible over to the left Matthew Chapter 7, it says in verse 21
of Matthew 7, not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord shall
enter into the Kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will
of my Father in heaven. You want to underline it in your
Bible. It isn't enough this to say you
believe in Christ, but you need to be doing his will like Jesus
when he was on earth. He's perfect God, perfect man.
He says my will is to do the will of the Father and if we're
his offspring, then we should have the same desire in our
hearts to do the will of the Father.
He said, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we
not prophesized in your name, cast out demons in your name and
done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them,
I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice
lawlessness. And won't that be a shock to
your whole life, thinking you're on the right track and you're
doing the right things? But meanwhile, your heart is
just not pure because you haven't allowed Christ to save
you. And so you're trying to be a
religious person. I think of all the institutions
on the face of the earth today, many churches are very
religious. They have statues, they have
crosses, they have icons, They have all kind of spiritual
atmosphere. And yet Jesus would say many
times he could say to us today, just because we have a dove that
represents the Holy Spirit of the cross here, He could say
these people worship me with their lips, but their heart is
far from me. And so the consequences of
believing a lie. That's why the apostle Paul
every time we take the Lord's Supper, he says to examine
yourself, whether you're in the faith every time that supper
goes around. Would the God, if any of us here
are posers and we're not Christians that we would take
that we would examine ourselves and we'd hear the Spirit of God
say you're still lost, you're phony, you need to get saved.
And if you hear that, be thankful that he's shown you
that you are in delusion. But if we can take that supper
and we allow the Spirit to examine us and we have that
assurance, blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.
Oh, by the foretaste of glory, define air salvation purchased
of blood, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.
We can know that for sure, can't we?
We have that assurance in us or our heart does not condemn us.
God, the Lord Jesus Christ comes with crowns of triumph and glory
and deity as we see here in this section of Revelation.
He's all knowing. He has flaming eyes.
His eyes and verse 12 are like a flame of fire, a holy judgement.
Christ, as He looks upon you and me.
His Word, the Word of God, is the instrument of His righteous
judgement. Look at Hebrews chapter 4.
Just move over to the left there a little bit a few books.
Hebrews chapter 4 verse 11 through 13.
It says. Let us therefore be diligent to
enter that rest lest anyone fall according to the same example of
disobedience. For the word of God and the
Bible declares Christ as the Word.
In the beginning was the Word and the word was with God and
the Word was God. John chapter one verse one.
Not like the Jehovah witnesses would say in the beginning was
the Word and the word was with God and the Word was a God.
No, Jesus Christ is God, not a created being.
He's the second person of the Trinity, God the Father, God the
Son, God the Holy Spirit, self existent, always existing of 1
essence with the Father. It says the word of God is
living and powerful and sharper than any 2 edged sword, piercing
even the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow.
And as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart. You know, when we sit here and
we examine ourselves in the Lord's Supper, I can just
picture like the sword picking away at my heart, pulling stuff
back. Clark, I want you to see this.
I want you to acknowledge this. I want you to recognize this.
I want you to let this go. Let me purify you, let me
carterize these places of bankruptcy in your heart, and
let my spirit make your heart dislike mine.
He's a discerner. He knows every thought and
intent of our heart. He knows every motive.
And verse 13, it says there's no creature hidden from his sight.
God sees the whole earth. He sees the whole world.
He sees every human being, all things are naked and open to the
eyes of him with whom we must give an account.
There's nothing I can hide. I can hide things from you, You
can hide things from me, but we can't hide anything from the
Lord God. In verse 13, it says he was
clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the
Word of God, the judgement that confronts God's enemies in
Isaiah chapter 63. If you flip over there in the
Old Testament, Isaiah chapter 63, this talks about this
Armageddon, this final battle, one day that will come upon this
earth and his second coming, the consequences of those who are
going to fight against the Lord. Who is this who comes from Edom
with dyed garments from Borzraw? This one who is glorious in his
apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength?
And this is what we see depicted in Revelation 19.
I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.
Why is your apparel read in your garments?
Like one who treads in the winepress?
Again, the same verbiage that's used in Revelation.
I've trodden the winepress alone and from the people.
No one was with me, for I've trodden them in my anger, and I
trampled them in my fury. Their blood is sprinkled upon my
garments. So what we see represented by
Christ is this battle that will ensue when He comes back.
For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my
redeem has come. I look, but there was no one to
help, and I wondered that there was no one to uphold.
Therefore my arm brought salvation for me and my own
fury. It sustained me.
I've trodden down the people in my anger, made them drunk in my
fury, and brought down their strength to the earth.
His name is called the Word of God.
Jesus is a visible word of the unseen God.
I love what it says in Hebrews regarding Christ himself.
In Hebrews chapter one verse 3, Hebrews chapter one verse 3, it
says about Christ, who being the brightness of his glory in the
express image of His person, on upholding all things by the word
of his power. When he sat down by himself, He
purged or cleanse us from our sins.
He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, sat down on
the right hand of the Father. He's the express image of his
Father. And so as we look at this
section of revelation, we understand that we're going to
be with the Lord when he comes back.
And as I described the difference between the rapture
of the church and the second coming Christ, when he comes
back and the second coming, his role will be absolute and
authoritative. It'll be seen as an iron roll,
invincible in this world. When he's rolling and reigning
on this earth, there will be no more corrupt governments.
There will be no immorality rolling and raging on the
televisions and on the Internet, in the airwaves.
It'll be a time of purity and righteousness, and nothing will
be dealt with like it has been in that time compared to the way
it is right now. Sometimes we wonder, why do the
wicked rage, as the psalmist said, and the people imagine a
vain thing? Why is it that people refuse to
see their need of a Savior? Why is it that they refuse to
repent? Christ has given Himself
everything on behalf of the human race upon the lost, upon
the Sinner, and the world keeps pushing their hands away from
Him. During this time in the
millennial Kingdom, when Christ rules with an iron hand for 1000
years, there'll still be people born on the face of the earth.
During that thousand years, there'll be sinners that will be
born that will one day once again rise up at the end of that
thousand years in anarchy, at the final battle of Gog and
Magog. And that's right prior to the
destruction of the earth, when the Bible says there will be a
new heaven and a new earth that will be created.
So his role will be unlike anything that we're experiencing
today. Now, we have to keep in mind
though, that God's hand is still on the universe.
That never was off of it. Sometimes we wonder though,
don't we, God, how could you let this happen?
Why did this go on? There's a purpose and a reason
for everything that happens in human history.
God's never sleeping. He's never ignoring the
heartache and the pain of his people.
Israel had to cry out for many hundreds of years before God
sent a deliverer, didn't they? Before God sent Moses to pull
them out of the bondage and horror?
Living under Pharaoh's regime, I think about the Jews and the
Holocaust and those who cried out for help and for mercy.
God was not silent in that time where He had many Christians
helping the Jews find a place of safety and to get out of the
country. So they weren't killed in the
ovens, but many were. But God was there, as He will be
even during the Tribulation when people were going through
tremendous horror and heartache and heartbreak.
And yet he'll have still on the earth a remnant, 144,000 people
who will be going around sharing the good news of Jesus Christ,
saying it isn't too late. Repent.
Thanks for being with us today here on Living Waters of Grace.
We're in the Book of Revelation, and we find it fascinating how
influential and involved the angels are in this book.
They bring about whatever it is that God has instructed them to
do, but it's through their actions that much of the
judgements come on the earth. The angels are in submission to
God as their authority, but He utilizes them in unique ways
throughout this book. Like angels have a specific
purpose from God, you have a unique purpose and plan too.
God wants to use you in your life as a testimony to others
and to bring others who are currently lost into the fold of
God. God would love more than
anything for all who are willing to come to Him for salvation,
but He wants it to be their choice, not a forced situation.
This is the way God works, not forcing himself on anyone, but
giving each person free will. If you're interested in learning
about this choice that's free and that it's a gift, go to
calvarychapelonline.com and click on the About Us tab and
then find the link for what we believe.
We'd love to be a help and a resource for you as you walk
through what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
If you find the contact tab on our website, you can get in
touch with us or submit a prayer request.
We'd love to hear from you. That's all for today's edition
and Revelation, but there's much more that Pastor Clark plans to
share with us from this culminating book of the Bible.
Stay tuned for that and make sure to mention this radio
program to others. Invite them to tune into Grace
FM 91.7 FM. They can stream worldwide at
Grace Radio dot FM. This has been Living Waters of
Grace.